Embodiments of the invention relate generally to the field of signal processing, and more specifically to reducing the number of data samples required for image/signal reconstruction.
With advances in various areas of technology, such as, but not limited to, imaging, networking, healthcare, audio, video entertainment and communications, huge volumes of data are frequently generated. Typically, imaging and healthcare applications may acquire several images of one or more objects or patients and subsequently store these images, thereby entailing use of considerable storage space and processing time. Similarly, communication applications call for reductions in bandwidth and an increase in data transmission speed to communicate data. Traditionally, data compression techniques have been employed to aid in the efficient storage of such data. Data compression may entail encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an unencoded representation would use through specific encoding schemes. By compressing the data, consumption of expensive resources, such as hard disk space or transmission bandwidth may be substantially reduced. Conventional compression techniques are usually applied as a post-processing step after the image/signal is reconstructed from the measured data.
Compressed sensing is a field of technology being increasingly used to aid in reducing the data measurements required for reconstructing the desired image and/or the desired signal. Through compressed sensing, it is recognized that images are often compressible, and thus image data may be acquired with fewer data samples. Conventional sampling requires the number of data samples associated with an image to be on the order of the number of pixels N in the image. The aim of compressed sensing is to start with fewer data samples (less than N, typically the number of data samples is of the order of degrees of freedom M in the image), and still achieve good image quality.
Furthermore, compressed sensing reduces the number of data measurements required for image/signal reconstruction. In Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging or Computed Tomography (CT) imaging, it is desirable to obtain information about an object by measuring a digital signal representative of that object. These digital signals are used in construction of images, spectra, and volumetric images that are generally indicative of the state of the object, which may be a patient's body, a chemical in dilution, or a slice of the earth, for example. However, capturing and processing data related to the underlying object involve laborious and time-consuming processes. By way of an example, performing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan of a patient, performing a three-dimensional (3D) CT scan of a patient, measuring a 3D nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum, and conducting a 3D seismic survey typically entail time-consuming processes. Compressed sensing is significant in these fields of technology as it allows use of a lower x-ray dose (in the case of CT) and faster image acquisition for MR or CT, which could ameliorate problems, for instance, with cardiac and respiratory motion and contrast bolus timing in MR angiography.
Conventional methods for image reconstruction typically do not make any prior assumptions regarding the compressible nature of the final reconstructed images. Also, if an assumption about the compressible nature of the images is made and a compressed sensing technique is used, the methods used for image reconstruction generally require substantial processing time. More specifically, conventional compressed sensing techniques are generally iterative in nature, and employ complicated non-linear cost functions and thus require substantial processing time. However, the minimization of the cost functions by the conventional methods leads to computationally intensive operations, since the minimization of cost functions requires evaluation of derivatives of non-linear terms. Further, solutions obtained via minimization of cost functions are very sensitive to free parameters. The free parameters, for example, represent weights of the terms in the cost functions. Furthermore, the conventional methods typically require human interventions for customization of the methods based upon a category of acquired data.
Thus, it is highly desirable to develop a compressed sensing technique that reduces processing time and manual intervention. More particularly, there is a need for an improved compressed sensing technique configured to enhance computational efficiency of signal processing, while making the reconstruction process automated or fully data-driven.